On Friday night’s edition of “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Maher ended his “New Rules” segment with an admonition to conservatives and bullies of all stripes. Bullying, he said, is not a masculine virtue, and Democrats need to stop ceding the narrative to the Republicans that they’re the tough guys.

He began by heaping scorn upon the conservatives who got so up in arms this week when President Barack Obama said that he wouldn’t let his son play pro football due to the brutality of the sport and the risk of brain injury. The “National Review” asked the question as to how the president’s fictitious son would fare in the military if football is too brutal.

“Right,” Maher scoffed. “Because defending your country and kick-off returns are the same thing.”

“I don’t know where Republicans get this delusion that they’re the party of manliness,” he continued, “but this is Rush Limbaugh’s bedroom.”

“Talent on loan from God,” Maher quipped. “Furniture on loan from Liberace.”

It’s baffling how conservatives, he said, who are by and large a majority of “non-serving chicken-hawks” have managed to brand themselves as the tough guys.

There’s no real manliness there, he contended, “just the pathetic bluster of a blogger in his bathrobe,” the kind of tough guy who “wants Obama to man up and bomb Iran while his mother fixes his macaroni and cheese.”

About the Author

David Ferguson is an editor at Raw Story. He was previously writer and radio producer in Athens, Georgia, hosting two shows for Georgia Public Broadcasting and blogging at Firedoglake.com and elsewhere. He is currently working on a book.